Cathy Hall, Ontario, Canada– 44 at time of event (2005)
In an effort to prevent a hotel reservation penalty, Cathy lived to actually stay in hospital. She had a terrible ache in her jaw and wanted to cancel the business trip. However the hotel would not accept the late cancellation. Cathy is so very glad her economic conscience forced her to attend the conference, because they had a defibrillator in that government building. Her intention to save her employer a hotel charge ended up saving her life instead!
At the start of the conference Cathy decided to get some privacy to deal with this ache, it felt like an impacted wisdom tooth, and she wondered if she ought to see a dentist. In the meantime, a quick trip to the bathroom to massage her jaw might fix the ache. Fortunately she was seen going in alone; a group of other attendees were lost and had noticed her attire and decided Cathy could give them directions to the conference room. “That’s the only reason. They said to themselves ‘That’s a nice suit, I bet she’s going where we’re going’, and were going to follow me.” When Cathy didn’t come back out they checked on her and raised the alarm. She was in a hypoxic shock and had fallen on the floor.
Even more fortuitous, the Ontario Provincial Police security staff-member had just completed another emergency call and still had the defibrillator in her hands when she responded to the alarm. One shock and Cathy’s heart rhythm was restored. The EMTs arrived and took her to hospital. This meant that Cathy never got to stay in the hotel, nor did she participate in the Ontario Government-wide conference; which was titled “Women of Influence & Inspiration”.
Instead, she underwent a heart catheterization to clear the blockages that had caused her cardiac arrest. She also received a stent to keep open the occluded artery. Surprisingly, despite a family history, Cathy had not been diagnosed as having a high risk factor for heart disease. Consequently, Cathy had not been eating as well as she ought, and was a pack-a-day smoker. Not any more—she even does regular exercise.
“I used to think heart attack and cardiac arrest were just interchangeable terms. I just didn’t understand, when I was in the hospital. Everybody would tell me how lucky I was, even the janitors would tell me, and I didn’t get it!” Cathy is now a dynamic advocate for public access defibrillation programs for the Heart and Stroke Foundation, and the Mikey Network*.
When Cathy suggested she was very lucky to be in the best hospital, with the best doctors, instead of at home in her little town, the ER doctor replied, “That has nothing to do with it. Do you have an AED where you work? We could’ve been waiting for you and there wouldn’t have been any save.”
David, her son, the firefighter, was more confident. She recalls his deep voice as he leant over and kissed her forehead. “He said, ‘I knew you’d be back, Mom. I told them you’d be back,’ when I was coming to.”
Guilt is a powerful emotion, and Cathy was surprised by her 28 year-old daughter’s comment. “It’s all my fault,” thinking an argument they’d had prior was the cause of Cathy’s arrest. To which Cathy responded, “Lisa, plaque in the arteries has nothing to do with you, sweetheart.” But, it was a stressful time for all of them. Lisa had just been discharged from hospital, plus both daughter and mother were in the middle of moving house, and the son was fighting on a fire-line in the north of the Province. “It was a wakeup call,” Cathy said simply.
-Jeremy Whitehead
*The Mikey Network was named for Mike Salem, a Canadian victim of Sudden Cardiac Arrest. This public Access Defibrillation program has deployed over 400 units to date. www.mikeynetwork.com